THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1595.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9808, 1 May 1895, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1595.

We lately inserted a letter calling attention to the new position of the world's affairs involved by the victory of Japan over China, which might result in the present leaders of Japan handling the population and" resources of both Empires, using them with all the knowledge and science learned from Europe. In these circumstances, the rest of the world would have to look at the possibility of war, and of consequent exclusion from the commerce of the East. But much more might Western nations, and especially Great Britain, fear a commercial and manufacturing competition with so many millions of people, active, ingenious, and laborious, and accustomed to live upon a few pence per day. This people, too, would have at their backs, furnishing the raw materials and basis of manufactures, ample supplies of coal and iron.

The subject is taken up in another column by the Single-Tax League, and the safeguard which they recommend against all these dangers is the nationalisation of the land by means of the single tax. Our correspondents say :— "When England was Merry England, and steam and electricity were yet unknown, the land supported the people, and there were neither paupers nor foreign markets worth mentioning." Yes, and the population then was about three millions, whereas it is now forty millions. "The land might support the people" when there were three millions on the surface of England, but to talk of forty millions of people obtaining their support from the land — if it were all nationalised to-morrow —is the height of absurdity. The peo pie of Great Britain live by exporting manufactures to foreign countries, and if that were cut off, its population would rapidly decrease. To talk of land nationalisation therefore as the means of maintaining the popula tion of Great Britain if its foreign trade were endangered, is mere rubbish. It shows how some people, when they take up a fad, are never tired of applying it to all circumstances and in all cases.

It is not worth while discussing this part of the subject. But in connection with it we may say something much more practical and nearer at hand. We must never forget that our prosperity depends upon competition with the world. England has to compete with the world in manufactures. We have to compete in natural products. The vital points in our position are, that taxation should be as light as possible, so that the wages paid for labour should go as far as may be, enabling the worker to enjoy the comforts of life, and to make provision for old age. But the prevalent political force in the colonies thinks that prosperity is to be attained by quite other means. A correspondent the other day told us of an actual case in which a labourer who was out ot work said, " Why does the Government not tax property more, and make the country go ahead V Ministers have done what they could in this direction. Their ideas as to taxation are not a whit more advanced than those of the labourer we have quoted. Taxation may for a time be levied on a class, but in the long run the whole nation has to bear it. Our Customs taxation is absurdly heavy, and is paid in the greatest part by the working man. A merchant, who deals chiefly with that class, informed us the other day that he had just imported a parcel of goods, whose cost was £200, and he had to pay upon that £55 for duty. To recoup himself for his advance, and for interest, he would probably have to recover about £80. Under such a system wages may be apparently high, but the purchasing power is reduced by all taxation. As for the property and income taxes, which are supposed to be levied only on the wealthy, they are taken chiefly from the funds which otherwise would be devoted to the extension of cultivation and to the establishment of new enterprises. Some people think that the Government should endeavour to encourage this or that industry by imposing new customs duties or endeavour to maintain high wages by paying high rates to a few men here and there on co - operative works. The idea is absurd. The report of the Tariff Commission now sitting can be worth nothing unless they advise a wholesale abolition of many of the trifling duties which now encumber the tariff. On one day a man gives evidence that a higher duty should be placed on certain kinds of glass and earthenware jars in order to encourage their being made in the colony at a price which will pay, we not being able otherwise to compete, owing to the heavy taxation levied on clothes, boots and shoes, etc. Next day we read that a witness was examined, who protested against any duty being placed upon the articles mentioned by the former witness, because he used these in putting up colonial jams. Then we have a deputation asking for a duty on all imported fruit in order to encourage fruitgrowing in the colony. Immediately after them come the importers of fruit, who show that if a tax were imposed it would put an end to the Island trade of Auckland. And a knot of members of Parliament look as wise as owls while listening to all this.

Formerly, wheat was a large and profitable export from New Zealand. We look upon it that a continuous pressure of heavy taxation has been a great means of handicapping us out of the market. Wheat cultivation has had to be abandoned, and the land has gone back to pasturage, employing much less labour than formerly. To some extent these colonies have a hold on the wool market because they can produce certain kinds which are wanted, and cannot be competed with by countries where labour is as cheap as it is in India. But even wool has not been very profitable of late years. There are some things whioh in think-

ing of politics we should neveiforget. "We have now to compete in promotion with the world, or with so much Sf the world as have natural advantages akin to our own. All our own legation, land nationalisation, labour lUls (even if passed in scores), sooialistio &- periments in co-operative settlement and otherwise, can have no effect Jj causing prosperity, whan that depend) upon the prices of the London market. <;